all-knight-party
@all-knight-party@fedia.io
- Comment on Every game developer company should be like this 11 months ago:
I think there's a strong possibility you're correct, especially with that genre. When it comes to purely competitive games continual new content and adjustments keep the masses coming back, and providing those things long term with no monetization is a business suicidal idea, and I think that strong reasoning like that excuses a lot of the cynicism and bad faith behind MTX in those specific cases provided its still relatively fair.
I give you an A+ for an actual strong argument for MTX (in those and related cases)
- Comment on Every game developer company should be like this 11 months ago:
Personally, yeah, I find it much less offensive if the extra purchases do not nag you in-game and their presence is not missed or noticed in terms of affecting balance.
For example, Middle Earth Shadow of War infamously let you buy Uruks. Having played the fuck out of that game I can confidently say the game was balanced such that you never needed to do that (apart from the end game grind, but the grind is the gameplay, so if you hit end game and didnt want to grind, you just didn't wanna keep playing), but having it appear in the menus was jarring and the idea of buying an Uruk with real money juxtaposed next to the mechanical intent of obtaining Uruks through exploration, marking, stalking, and exploiting their weaknesses just stuck out like a cynical sore thumb.
If they put the Uruk purchases outside the game with no in-game ads and I played through Shadow of War and was like "man holy shit, my Uruks cannot keep up with the curve, this is insanely grindy" and I discovered that you could buy them and skip it, I'd say thats dastardly as well.
But the happy medium would be balancing it so it wasn't necessary, but providing an external purchase to milk that revenue if they really still wanted to. That example is moot now anyway since they eventually removed the MTX Uruks entirely.
- Comment on Every game developer company should be like this 11 months ago:
I know and understand the whole idea of maximizing artist hours for cosmetic DLC. It's an understandable reason for it to exist.
However, the big thing about MTX to me is the way it changes my perception of the game and how it feels to interact with it. Playing games without in-game cash shops or MTX allows me to focus on the game itself and feel that what I've purchased is one cohesive piece that works in a singular purpose towards a goal of something enjoyable to play and rewarding to explore the content of.
Something like Prey 2016. My entire memory and experience of playing that game is absolutely nothing but the experience of the lore, atmosphere, gameplay, decisions, and the creativity of exploration. At no point was I ever passing over menu options designed to sell me more piecemeal content, I wasn't wading through a reel of battle pass cosmetics, I wasn't attempting to ignore little rectangular ads on the main menu asking me to check some skins out.
And again, I totally understand why those things are there and I'm not inherently against their existence, I enjoy many games where those experiences are a part. In the end, I just believe that being free of that stuff absolutely makes a game feel perceptibly better and more pure, more of a game and less of a transparently monetized product.
I also feel like there's a sort of forbidden knowledge aspect to the whole "maximizing artist labor time for cosmetic MTX". The best way for cosmetic MTX to happen is to utilize extra possible labor time that couldn't be used elsewhere. I'd love to believe that any cosmetic MTX took no time or development from any other part of the game. I'd love to believe that no amazing visual design for armor or weapons was held because its more premium appearance would better fit a paid item than a free base game one.
But you'll never know that for sure. There will always be that inkling of cynical doubt that the cool item got a price tag and the okay one ended up in the base game. That the visual artists are so burnt making constant art for base game and then MTX that their energy couldn't be focused solely on the core experience. I can assume, I can take the company's word for it, but I'll never be able to cleanse my mind of the knowledge that it's a separate kind of content from the base game.
- Comment on Every game developer company should be like this 11 months ago:
It's more of a "are good games with microtransactions good regardless of MTX or in spite of them?"
You can totally have a good game with MTX, but I think it always lowers the quality in some way, and they're only good in spite. I don't think OP is suggesting that no MTX guarantees a good game, but that a game should stand on its own merits and sell its whole experience instead of chopping itself up piecemeal
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 to Feature as Much as 512 GB of Internal Storage, 8-Inch LCD Screen - Rumor 11 months ago:
Third parties do it for me. Sadly, I wish Nintendo would release official ergonomic joy cons. Instead I must buy something Chinese with questionable QC, to get something fully featured compared to the feature-neutered but high-quality Hori licensed ones.
- Comment on What's going on with the downvote button? 11 months ago:
You display the problem with that system in your own comment through your wording of "should be". Everyone knows what downvotes and upvotes should be, but due to their intent being unenforceable they just become "that person liked or didn't like this for reasons beyond my knowledge and understanding"
- Comment on Do you use the swipe to type feature on your phone? 11 months ago:
The only time I've ever used swipe was when Nintype/Keyboard69 was still supported. The two finger swipe was the only time swipe could keep up with my tap typing speed, and sometimes exceed it, but since then nobody has come in and done anything as revolutionary with the typing game, and Nintype is simply too out of date and buggy, but man, I really miss it.
- Comment on Do you use the swipe to type feature on your phone? 11 months ago:
The only time I've ever used swipe was when Nintype/Keyboard69 was still supported. The two finger swipe was the only time swipe could keep up with my tap typing speed, and sometimes exceed it, but since then nobody has come in and done anything as revolutionary with the typing game, and Nintype is simply too out of date and buggy, but man, I really miss it.